Since Apple revealed its long-awaited mobile phone which uses the "iPhone" trademark, all the IT-centric web is talking about Cisco's lawsuit [1] against Apple over the use of this trademark, which the networking giant claims to own. But a report MacScoop has obtained pointed us in the direction of another company which is actually the company that appears to be in the best position to defend a right to the highly desired "iPhone" trademark.
As crazy as you may find this, we could not currently find any corroborating reports on the web relating these facts. On July 29, 2003, a Florida-based company called "Teltronics [2]" has registered the "Vision I-Phone" trademark under the Serial Number 76349278 at the U.S Patents & Trademarks Office. The goods & services section of the filing states "IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Telecommunications products; namely, digital telephones. FIRST USE: 20020416. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20020416". Cisco has reportedly not objected to the registering of the "iPhone" trademark by Teltronics.
The filing also states in the disclaimer section: "NO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE "I-PHONE" APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN". This disclaimer may be good news to Apple because it means Teltronics shouldn't claim exclusive use on the "iPhone" trademark unless it is preceded by the word "Vision"
However, the report MacScoop has obtained from an source who appears to have widely investigated the case says that on December 13th, Teltronics was partially responsible of the refusal of the "iPhone" trademark registering that another telecom company, Teledex was trying to obtain.
A recent report on ZNet blogs revealed [3] that Cisco could have lost its rights on the "iPhone" trademark it had registered in 2000. According to the law, a trademark registered by a company may go back public if the company in question doesn't use it for the next five years after it has registered it.
Cisco only released products using the "iPhone" brand last month, which is way too late. Moreover, it appears that, back in May 2006, the company had provided "fake" documents to the trademarks office, showing a fictitious product box with the "iPhone" trademark printed on a stick. The controversal filing "proving" that Cisco was using the "iPhone" trademark was provided to the trademarks office just days before deadline.
As for Apple, it has reportedly created a company called Ocean Telecom Services LLC with the purpose of obtaining the "iPhone" trademark either through registration at the trademarks office or through an agreement with Cisco. Apple did never confirm or provided comments regarding the claims related to Ocean Telecom.
If we look at all these reports as well as the exclusive report MacScoop has obtained, we notice that the only company that may currently legally use the "iPhone" trademark is actually neither Cisco or Apple, but Teltronics!
So, now just speculating, maybe behind the curtains, the real reason why Apple dismissed negotiations with the networking giant (Cisco) was because it saw that the real deal was somewhere else. Time will tell, let's hope it won't tell through further lawsuits!